E3 2016: Deus Ex Go Is a Hack-and-Swipe Deus Ex Adventure

A new Go game and a level editor too!

If you haven’t played either Hitman Go or Lara Croft Go on your smartphone or tablet (or, in Hitman Go’s case, PS4 or PC as well), please stop reading this and go fix that. Trust me.

Are you back? Great, so now you understand why another title in the Go franchise – this time Deus Ex gets the touch-driven strategy treatment – is fantastic news. Simply put, the Go games are, to date, the smartest translation of AAA console franchises to the mobile space we’ve ever seen, and Adam Jensen’s augmented-future universe will be Go-ified next (see the first trailer above).

Adam Jensen hacks his way through puzzles in Deus Ex Go.

I played six quick stages from an early build of Deus Ex Go, which is due out this summer for phones and tablets, and it’s instantly familiar to anyone who’s played Lara Croft Go or especially Hitman Go. You navigate each scenario, your movements restricted by the grid patterns on the floor, and try to reach the exit while defeating the obstacles in your path. Sometimes it’s bad guys who will pursue you in a circular pattern if they spot you from two spaces away, requiring you to anticipate and out-flank his movements in order to defeat him (as in Hitman Go, Jensen will lose head-on encounters; you must approach from behind or the sides in order to strike down your targets). Unless, that is, you use the invisibility power-up, which can be collected and pocketed until you’re ready to activate it. That will allow you to walk right up to a guy’s face and stab him in it, provided he’s within two moves of you, as that’s how long the power-up lasts.

Other times you’ll have to deal with a more fittingly Deus Ex-esque mechanical obstacle, such as a motion-sensing gun turret. These can be hacked at terminals so that they won’t fire. Simply trace a line with your finger from the terminal you’re standing at to the device you want hacked, be it the turret or the platform under the floor you want raised up so that you can create a path to the exit for yourself. By the sixth and final stage I got to play, all of these elements -- human enemies, gun turrets, hackable floor panels, and invisibility power-ups – were all on display, causing me to try and die several times before putting all of the puzzle pieces together.

Another look at a puzzle level in Deus Ex Go.

Even better, Deus Ex Go will be the first Go title to let you design your own challenge scenarios. Yes, the Square Enix Montreal development team is including a mission editor, along with a stated intention that the team will be supporting the game after release right alongside whatever creations the community comes up with. The Go games are already my favorite mobile experiences, and if my brief time with Deus Ex Go is any indication, they’re not going to lose that distinction for me anytime soon.